How are we going to get out of this? We have an army of undead all around and god knows where we are! I know that there is little to no chance of us surviving, even if we make it through this challenge, there will just be another waiting for us. And while the enemy grows with each fallen survivor our numbers only grow smaller, and our resources dwindle more and more. What’s the point in fighting, if there’s no hope of victory?

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Saturday, July 11, 2015

Haven Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I could hardly believe we’d made it,
but then another part of me never doubted that we would. All the familiar faces
seemed like little miracles, I had been so concerned about the safety of the
others I think I convinced myself I would never see them again. But as it turns
out, my concerns were valid, and not everyone was alive and well.

Malcolm had been injured, in an
incident everyone had been shady about, Nicole said she would tell me about it
later. Originally he hadn’t seemed badly injured, but the next day he collapsed,
and he’d only woken up sporadically since. Nicole said he was lucky, we had
used up most of the IV supplies on Chris, and there wouldn’t be enough to
sustain another unconscious patient. But it had been a long time since he last
woke up.

‘Will he wake up?’ I asked Nicole
when we were alone in Malcolm’s room, well, the section separated from the rest
of the area using shelves and cloths

‘There’s no way to tell,’ Nicole
answered definitely, she was becoming far more confident in her clinical
expertise, ‘I don’t know what damage has been done, he may have fractured his
skull, or just have a bad concussion. All I can do is keep his head cushioned
and do what I can to keep him stable, it’s up to his own body to fix what is
wrong’

I refused to believe it was up to
chance, ‘but all those medicines from the hospital, can’t they help?’

‘Most of those were antibiotics, useless
in this type of injury, and as I said I don’t know what is wrong, a medicine
that might help one diagnosis might worsen his condition if I was wrong.’

I knew she was right, I was learning
to trust her opinions more and more, medical or non-medical. ‘How did this
happen?’ I asked, although I’m not sure whether it was her I asked, or myself.
Nicole turned me around and pointed at a spot on the wall where a section of
ventilation was missing, ‘it fell right on top of him, Lauren and Brooke were
there when it happened. We had just found something strange and Malcolm was coming
to get them’

‘Something strange?’

‘Food scraps and empty containers,
as well as a sleeping bag that according to Malcolm wasn’t there before,
someone had been staying here before us, but after we ransacked it.’

I tried to process this information
as quick as I could, someone else here? Was it that Anthony guy? The leader of
the marauders? ‘Were they still here?’ I asked, worried we’d be thrown back
into jeopardy just as we thought we were safe

Nicole nodded grimly and I was
filled with dread, ‘they were hiding in the ventilation when it fell.’ She
walked over to one of the “walls” and pulled back the cloth, through the
shelves I could see another bed, but the patient on this one was a young girl.

…

Jade, Connor, Daniel, and Chris were
being updated by Will and Lauren when I came over and sat down next to them. ‘Did
you were about this?’ Jade asked shocked, the others were all wearing similar
expressions

‘Nicole just filled me in,’ I reply
exhausted, not for the first time I wished I hadn’t stepped forward to be the
leader

‘Did you speak to our new guest?’
Connor asked, more than slightly concerned over the issues she could bring with
her

‘Not yet she was resting, Nicole
said she’d find me,’ I took and deep breath before speaking again, trying to
sort my thoughts before getting any new information, ‘how’s everything else
been going here?’

‘Well,’ Will started a bit shamefully,
‘Brooke and Nicole got themselves sorted but to be honest the rest of us…’

‘We were too worried about you to
really start doing anything,’ Lauren finished for him.

A flash of unreasonable anger came
over me, ‘oh great so while we’ve been out struggling to survive, risking our
lives to get back here you’ve just been laying around sitting on your asses!’

‘Hey!’ Chris stood up angrily but
Daniel stood in front and held him back

‘It’s not like that Todd,’ Will said
quietly, ‘we got to the station and organised ourselves, it felt like we had
our lives back, we could look to the future and see something real. Even when
we were separated from you we still felt like we had some hope. But then Malcolm
collapsed and it just felt like everything was going wrong, and there was
nothing we could do,’ his voice broke as we spoke, and everyone was silent, ‘it
was like I was on the rooftop again, losing a friend, and it was all my fault.
I couldn’t imagine doing anything, I was too afraid of losing someone else.’

I wanted to say something, I wanted to
comfort my friend, but part of me was angry, I don’t know why, and another part
of me was so affected by his words I couldn’t find any of my own, so I just
walked away. I saw Daniel, Lauren, and Chris walk off the other way, and Jade
followed me but I didn’t really want her to. Only Connor stayed but I doubted
he could help Will much.

I walked outside to Brooke’s empty
shooting range, grateful for the privacy. Angrily I picked up one of the
paintball guns and quickly fired a few shots, and missed the target each time. ‘Damn
it!’ I swore, I didn’t know why I was so angry, was it because I was genuinely
upset with Will and the others? No. To be honest I couldn’t blame them, I had
been in the same position just a few days ago, on the verge of giving up, but I
knew the others had made it out of the station alive. As I looked out on the
horizon I could see some smoke from the still smouldering wreckage of the
station, fire from the explosion must have set the building ablaze, god knows
what they must have thought when they saw that.

I wasn’t angry anymore, just sad,
but unlike before I didn’t feel depressed, or like giving up. I felt like
changing things for the better. I never wanted to hear something like that
again, I would make sure of that.

‘So have you calmed down now?’ I
turned around and saw Jade walking towards me, she must have waited inside a
while before following me, smart move. ‘Yeah,’ I smiled bitterly

‘Good, ‘cause you were out of line
there,’ She leant against the wall Brooke had made

‘I know, I don’t know why I said
that’

‘I do,’ I turned sharply to her as
she spoke, ‘you were scared, scared of not making it here, scared of what you
would find, and when you did get her you find we almost lost another friend.
You weren’t angry at Will, or Lauren, or even at yourself, you were just…
scared’

‘Even before all this you knew how I
was feeling before I did,’ I laughed

‘That’s not that hard seeing how
slow you are about it,’ she moved closer as she spoke.

We stood there silently for a
moment, enjoying being together, safe, again. ‘I’m sorry we haven’t been
talking that much recently Jade,’ I apologised, looking in her eyes as she
looked at the ground, ‘or spending much time together at all’-

‘It’s okay Todd, I can hardly blame
you for not being the perfect boyfriend while also leading a group of
apocalypse survivors,’ she laughed

‘But still, I want that to change,
maybe the reason why things at the station went to hell, and why I came so
close to giving up is because I didn’t have you to clear my head, and tell me
how I was feeling’

‘Well I guess that’ll have to
change,’ she spoke quietly as she leaned in close.

‘Todd!’ I cursed under my breath as
Nicole burst through the door, ‘She’s awake!’